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how to check beta of a stock

by Haskell Klocko Jr. Published 3 years ago Updated 2 years ago
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To determine the beta of an entire portfolio of stocks, you can follow these four steps:

  • Add up the value (number of shares multiplied by the share price) of each stock you own and your entire portfolio.
  • Based on these values, determine how much you have of each stock as a percentage of the overall portfolio.
  • Multiply those percentage figures by the appropriate beta for each stock. ...
  • Add up the weighted beta figures.

To calculate the beta value of a stock, a spreadsheet program is useful for calculating the covariance of the stock and index returns, then dividing that by the variance of the index. If a stock returned 8% last year and the index returned 5%, a rough estimate of beta is: 8 / 5 = 1.6.

Full Answer

How to easily calculate the beta of a stock?

Top 3 Formula to Calculate Beta

  1. Covariance/Variance Method. To calculate the covariance Calculate The Covariance Covariance is a statistical measure used to find the relationship between two assets and is calculated as the standard deviation ...
  2. By Slope Method in Excel. We can also calculate Beta by using the slope function in excel. ...
  3. Correlation Method. ...

How do you calculate the beta of a stock?

Part 1 Part 1 of 4: Calculating Beta Using a Simple Equation

  1. Find the risk-free rate. This is the rate of return an investor could expect on an investment in which his or her money is not at risk, such as ...
  2. Determine the respective rates of return for the stock and for the market or appropriate index. These figures are also expressed as percentages.
  3. Subtract the risk-free rate from the stock's rate of return. ...

More items...

What stocks have the highest beta?

  • Microsoft has a beta of around 1.25. This means an investor can reasonably expect that this stock is 25% more volatile than the market. ...
  • Walt Disney Company has a beta right around 1.03. This puts its volatility right in line with the broader market. ...
  • In contrast, Duke Energy has a beta of around 0.27. ...

What factors determine the beta of a stock?

Beta is determined by the cyclicality of a firm's revenues. This cyclicality is magnified by the firm's operating and financial leverage. (1) Revenues. The cyclicality of a firm's sales is an important factor in determining beta. In general, stock prices will rise when the economy expands and will fall when the economy contracts.

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How do you find beta of a stock?

Beta could be calculated by first dividing the security's standard deviation of returns by the benchmark's standard deviation of returns. The resulting value is multiplied by the correlation of the security's returns and the benchmark's returns.

How do you know if a stock is high beta?

A stock that swings more than the market over time has a beta above 1.0. If a stock moves less than the market, the stock's beta is less than 1.0. High-beta stocks are supposed to be riskier but provide higher return potential; low-beta stocks pose less risk but also lower returns.

Is 1.5 A high beta?

A high beta (greater than 1.0) indicates moderate or high price volatility. A beta of 1.5 forecasts a 1.5% change in the return on an asset for every 1% change in the return on the market.

What is a good beta score for a stock?

Stocks with a value greater than 1 are more volatile than the market (meaning they will generally go up more than the market goes up, and go down more than the market goes down). Stocks with a beta of less than 1 have a smoother ride as their moves are more muted than the market's.

How can you find the beta of a portfolio?

Portfolio Beta formulaAdd up the value (number of shares x share price) of each stock you own and your entire portfolio.Based on these values, determine how much you have of each stock as a percentage of the overall portfolio.Take the percentage figures and multiply them with each stock's beta value.More items...•

Which stock has highest beta value?

High Beta Stocks IntradayNestle India. 17171.00. 71.43. 165555.43. 1.16. 594.71. -1.25. 3980.70. 10.24. 147.06. 113.08.Life Insurance. 800.25. 125.19. 506157.94. 0.00. 2371.55. -18.04. 211325.72. 11.77. 142.46. 48.22.Glaxosmi. Pharma. 1500.30. 15.05. 25415.99. 2.00. 1219.05. 5187.97. 809.63. 8.76. 99.63. 81.17.

Is negative beta good?

Negative beta: A beta less than 0, which would indicate an inverse relation to the market, is possible but highly unlikely. Some investors argue that gold and gold stocks should have negative betas because they tend to do better when the stock market declines. Beta of 0: Basically, cash has a beta of 0.

What does a beta of 1.20 indicate?

Trading-Glossary. "A measure of a fund's risk, or volatility, compared to the market which is represented as 1.0. A fund with a beta of 1.20 is 20% more volatile than the market, while a fund with a beta of 0.80 would be 20% less volatile than the market."

Is beta less than 1 GOOD?

High And Low Beta Value A stock that is less volatile, or has fewer price swings, than the aggregate market has a beta value of less than one. A low beta value typically means that the stock is considered less risky, but will likely offer low returns as well.

What does a stock beta of 1.5 mean?

Roughly speaking, a security with a beta of 1.5, will have move, on average, 1.5 times the market return. [More precisely, that stock's excess return (over and above a short-term money market rate) is expected to move 1.5 times the market excess return).]

What does a beta of 0.6 mean?

Teva Pharmaceutical Industry's 2.49 beta, for example, indicates that the stock is expected to be more than twice as volatile than the market, while Intel's beta of 0.6 means the stock will typically move at a rate that's only about half that the broader market (data from Yahoo Finance, June 13, 2019).

What does a β of 1.3 mean?

The beta for a stock describes how much the stock's price moves compared to the market. If a stock has a beta above 1, it's more volatile than the overall market. For example, if an asset has a beta of 1.3, it's theoretically 30% more volatile than the market.

What does a beta of 1.8 mean?

Beta indicates how volatile a stock's price is in comparison to the overall stock market. A beta greater than 1 indicates a stock's price swings more wildly (i.e., more volatile) than the overall market. A beta of less than 1 indicates that a stock's price is less volatile than the overall market.

What does a high beta indicate?

A beta that is greater than 1.0 indicates that the security's price is theoretically more volatile than the market. For example, if a stock's beta is 1.2, it is assumed to be 20% more volatile than the market. Technology stocks and small cap stocks tend to have higher betas than the market benchmark.

What does a beta of 0.70 mean?

Any beta less than 1 denotes lower volatility and higher than 1 denotes more volatility compared to the benchmark index. For example, if your mutual fund portfolio XYZ has a beta of 0.70, it denotes lower volatility. This means that for every rise or fall of 1 in the market, the value of XYZ may rise or fall by 0.70.

What is an example of a high beta?

A high beta index refers to a market index made up of stocks with higher-than-average volatility compared to the overall stock market. Examples include the S&P 500 High Beta Index, the TSX Composite High Beta Index, the Hang Seng High Beta Index, and the S&P Emerging Markets High Beta Index.

What is beta in stock market?

Stock Beta is one of the statistical tools that quantify the volatility in the prices of a security or stock with reference to the market as a whole or any other benchmark used for comparing the performance of the security. It is actually a component of Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM)

What does it mean when the beta of a stock is negative?

The Stock Beta can have three types of values: Beta < 0: If the Beta is negative, then this implies an inverse relationship between the stock and the underlying market or the benchmark in comparison. Both stock and the market or the benchmark will move in the opposite direction. Beta = 0: If the Beta is equal to zero, ...

What does a beta of 1 mean?

Beta of 1 implies that the volatility of the stock is exactly the same as that of the underlying market or the index in both qualitative and quantitative terms. Beta of greater than 1 implies that the stock is more volatile than the underlying market or index. A negative Beta is possible but highly unlikely.

What does it mean when the beta is greater than zero?

Beta > 0: If the Beta is greater than zero, then there is a strong direct relationship between the stock and the underlying market or the benchmark. Both stock and the market or the benchmark will move in the same direction. Some further insight is as follows:

What does it mean when the beta is 0?

Beta = 0: If the Beta is equal to zero, then this implies that there is no relation between the movement of the returns of the stock and the market or the benchmark, and hence both are too dissimilar to have any common pattern in price movements . Beta > 0: If the Beta is greater than zero, then there is a strong direct relationship between ...

Is a negative beta of gold a good thing?

A negative Beta is possible but highly unlikely. Most investors believe that gold and stock based on gold tend to perform better when the market dives. Whereas a Beta of zero is possible in the case of government bonds acting as risk-free securities providing a low yield to the investors.

How to calculate beta of a stock?

Here is a straightforward formula for calculating the Beta Coefficient of a Stock: 1 Obtain the stock’s historical share price data. 2 Obtain historical values of a market index, e.g., S&P 500. 3 Convert the share price values into daily return values using the following formula: return = (closing share price − opening share price)/opening share price. 4 Convert historical stock market index values in a similar way. 5 Align the share return data with index return such that there is a 1-on-1 correspondence between them. For share price return, there should be a corresponding index return. 6 Using the SLOPE function in a financial calculator to find the slope between both arrays of data and the resultant figure is Beta.

What does beta mean in stocks?

Beta can give you an estimate of the stock’s risk and some idea of market volatility. Ideally, the Beta will tell you the difference between a stock’s risk and the risk of an entire index market.

What is the beta coefficient?

Generally, analysts regard the Beta Coefficient as a measure of systematic or “general market” risk. Analysts often use the mathematical symbol β to represent the Beta in calculations. To explain, systematic is the level of risk or volatility of equity in the entire market or index.

Why do analysts use the beta coefficient?

Analysts examine the Beta Coefficient, or Beta of stock, because the Beta measures risk and volatility. Specifically, the Beta can give you an estimate of the stock’s risk and some idea of market volatility. Ideally, the Beta will tell you the difference between a stock’s risk and the risk of an entire index market.

Why is beta a limited tool?

Hence, the Beta is a limited tool because it only measures some risks associated with individual stocks or indexes. However, a rough estimate of risk is better than no estimate of risk.

Can you use beta in stock analysis?

In the final analysis, the Beta is only one of many stock analysis tools you can use. In fact, some analysts and investors never use the Beta. On the other hand, there are many analysts who swear by the Beta. Hence using the Beta is a matter of choice.

Is a rough estimate of risk better than no estimate of risk?

However, a rough estimate of risk is better than no estimate of risk . Also, the Beta Coefficient is the basis of some popular equity valuation methods, for instance, the capital asset model and the security market line.

What is beta in stock?

Stock beta is a metric that can help you gauge a stock’s relationship to the overall market. But beta has its limits and should be considered alongside other performance data before an investment decision is made.

Why is beta important?

Stock beta can be an important metric in helping you determine a stock’s volatility and risk. But there are other factors to consider before you add a stock to your portfolio, like analyst ratings, time in business, free cash flow and more.

What does it mean when a stock has a beta of over 100?

If you see a beta of over 100 on a research site it is usually a statistical error or the stock has experienced a wild and probably fatal price swing. For the most part, stocks of established companies rarely have a beta higher than 4.

Why do stocks have beta?

The beta is the number that tells the investor how that stock acts compared to all other stocks, or at least in comparison to the stocks that comprise a relevant index.

Why should gold stocks have negative beta?

Some investors argue that gold and gold stocks should have negative betas because they tend to do better when the stock market declines.

What does a beta of utility mean?

Many utility sector stocks have a beta of less than 1. Essentially, beta expresses the trade-off between minimizing risk and maximizing return. Say a company has a beta of 2. This means it is two times as volatile as the overall market. We expect the market overall to go up by 10%.

What is the beta of cash?

Beta of 0: Basically, cash has a beta of 0. In other words, regardless of which way the market moves, the value of cash remains unchanged (given no inflation). Beta between 0 and 1 : Companies that are less volatile than the market have a beta of less than 1 but more than 0. Many utility companies fall in this range.

What does beta mean in investing?

In investing, beta does not refer to fraternities, product testing, or old videocassettes. Beta is a measurement of market risk or volatility. That is, it indicates how much the price of a stock tends to fluctuate up and down compared to other stocks.

What does a beta of 1 mean?

A beta of 1 indicates that the security's price tends to move with the market. A beta greater than 1 indicates that the security's price tends to be more volatile than the market. A beta of less than 1 means it tends to be less volatile than the market.

How to find out if a stock has a beta of 2?

To begin, select the "Technical" tab within the "Filters" section. Under the "Beta" tab, select " Over 2" from the dropdown menu. This displays a list of stocks that have a beta higher than 2. Traders can add additional filters, such as country, exchange, and index.

What does it mean when a stock has a beta of 1?

If a stock has a beta above 1, it's more volatile than the overall market. For example, if an asset has a beta of 1.3, it's theoretically 30% more volatile than the market. Stocks generally have a positive beta since they are correlated to the market.

Why is the beta of a stock below 1?

If the beta is below 1, the stock either has lower volatility than the market, or it's a volatile asset whose price movements are not highly correlated with the overall market. The price of Treasury bills (T-bills) has a beta lower than 1 because T-bills don't move in relation to the overall market. Many consider stocks in the utility sector ...

What does beta mean in stock?

Beta is a statistical measure of the volatility of a stock versus the overall market. A beta above 1 means a stock is more volatile than the overall market. A beta below 1 means a stock is less volatile than the overall market. The S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average, and Nasdaq 100 are frequently used beta measures.

What is beta in hedge funds?

Beta is an important concept for the analysis of hedge funds. It can show the relationship between a hedge fund’s returns and the market return. Beta can show how much risk the fund is taking in certain asset classes and can be used to measure against other benchmarks, such as fixed income or even hedge fund indexes.

How to calculate beta?

The beta coefficient is calculated by dividing the covariance of the stock return versus the market return by the variance of the market. Beta is used in the calculation of the capital asset pricing model (CAPM). This model calculates the required return for an asset versus its risk. The required return is calculated by taking the risk-free rate plus the risk premium. The risk premium is found by taking the market return minus the risk-free rate and multiplying it by the beta.

What is the most commonly used stock index?

The most commonly used stock index is the S&P 500. The S&P 500 is used as the measure because of the high number of large-cap stocks included in the index and the broad number of sectors included. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) has also previously been the main measure of the market, but it has fallen out of favor since it only includes 30 ...

What is the beta of a stock?

The stock beta definition is the covariance of the stock's price and a broad market index's price divided by the variance of the index price. A stock more volatile than the market has a beta value greater than 1, and one that's less volatile than the market has a beta value less than 1.

What does it mean when a stock's beta is 1?

While knowing that a particular stock's beta value is 1 tells you that it is roughly as volatile as the market itself, knowing that the index's beta value is 1 is not a useful piece of information, since it is always 1 by definition.

What is beta in stock market?

Beta is a measure of an investment's volatility relative to the market as a whole. For the stock market, that usually means a benchmark broad market index like the S&P 500. You can compute beta values of stocks yourself using a statistical formula and details about the price of the stock and the benchmark, or you can use an online stock beta ...

Why are beta values less useful?

Beta values can also be less useful if the risk of the market itself changes, since beta values are relative to market prices. Also note that it can be hard to directly compare beta values determined from two different indexes. For instance, if you compute the beta value of a French stock using a French stock market index and a U.S.

What is beta value?

The quantity called beta, sometimes written using the Greek letter as β, is a measure of the volatility of a stock or another investment. It's not an absolute measure of volatility but one determined based on the market as a whole. It's used in what's called the capital asset pricing model, ...

How to calculate alpha of a stock?

You can easily calculate alpha if you have the rate of return of a stock and of the index of your choice for a given period of time simply by dividing the stock's return by the index's return and multiplying by 100 to generate a percentage . By definition, the index itself has an alpha of 0. Naturally, you will do well if you invest in opportunities ...

What is beta in investing?

Beta is one of the many factors that you may look at it in deciding to make investments. You'll usually not want to pick a stock investment solely based on beta, since you'll also be interested in the fundamentals of the company behind the stock and how it's performing relative to other businesses in its same sector.

What is beta in stocks?

Beta is a measure of the volatility — or systematic risk — of a security or portfolio compared to the market as a whole. Beta is used in the capital asset pricing model (CAPM), which describes the relationship between systematic risk and expected return for assets (usually stocks). CAPM is widely used as a method for pricing risky securities ...

What does it mean when a stock has a beta of less than 1.0?

Beta Value Less Than One. A beta value that is less than 1.0 means that the security is theoretically less volatile than the market. Including this stock in a portfolio makes it less risky than the same portfolio without the stock.

What is a beta of 1.0?

A stock with a beta of 1.0 has systematic risk. However, the beta calculation can’t detect any unsystematic risk. Adding a stock to a portfolio with a beta of 1.0 doesn’t add any risk to the portfolio, but it also doesn’t increase the likelihood that the portfolio will provide an excess return.

Why is beta important?

Beta is useful in determining a security's short-term risk, and for analyzing volatility to arrive at equity costs when using the CAPM. However, since beta is calculated using historical data points, it becomes less meaningful for investors looking to predict a stock's future movements.

How does beta work?

How Beta Works. A beta coefficient can measure the volatility of an individual stock compared to the systematic risk of the entire market. In statistical terms, beta represents the slope of the line through a regression of data points.

What is beta in capital asset pricing?

Beta, primarily used in the capital asset pricing model (CAPM), is a measure of the volatility–or systematic risk–of a security or portfolio compared to the market as a whole.

What does a negative beta mean?

Some stocks have negative betas. A beta of -1.0 means that the stock is inversely correlated to the market benchmark. This stock could be thought of as an opposite, mirror image of the benchmark’s trends. Put options and inverse ETFs are designed to have negative betas.

What is beta in stock?

Beta can be a useful metric to determine how a stock’s price may move in relation to the overall market by examining its past performance. It can also be a useful indicator of risk, especially for investors who make trades frequently. However, beta has its limitations.

What does beta mean in stock market?

Beta is represented as a number. Based on beta analysis, the overall stock market has a beta of 1. And the beta of individual stocks determines how far they deviate from the broader market. A stock with a beta equal to 1 assumes its price moves hand-in-hand with the market.

What does a beta of 2 mean?

If the stock you’re analyzing has a beta of 2, that means the stock is twice as volatile as the market.

What does a high beta mean in stocks?

Beta measures how volatile a stock is in relation to the broader stock market over time. A stock with a high beta indicates it’s more volatile than the overall market and can react with dramatic share-price changes amid market swings. So if you don’t have the stomach for vast price changes, you may want to avoid investing in high-beta stocks.

What does it mean when a beta is below 1?

Betas can also dip below 1 into negative territory. This indicates that the stock may respond in the opposite direction of the overall market. Using the previous example, you could expect the stock’s price to go up if the S&P 500 goes down and vice versa.

What does it mean to have a high beta?

In essence, it would have a high beta and mean more risk.

Does beta help you dig into the fundamentals of a company?

As a result, beta doesn’t help you dig into the fundamentals of the company that sells the stock.

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